From the project "VIETNAM THANKS USA"
During the Vietnam War (November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975) the United States military used chemical agents in its fight against Ho Chi Minh's Army of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The most important of those chemical weapons were the incendiary napalm and the defoliant Agent Orange, a liquid mixture containing the 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T herbicides. The compound is toxic for only about a week before it breaks down, but one of its daughter products is the persistent toxin dioxin. Dioxin lingers in soil, water, and human bodies.
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The US sprayed Agent Orange on the jungles and fields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The Americans sought to defoliate the trees and bushes, so that enemy soldiers would be exposed. They also wanted to kill off the agricultural crops that fed the Viet Cong (as well as local civilians).
They spread 43 million liters of Agent Orange, covering 24% of south Vietnam with the poison. Over 3,000 villages were in the spray zone. In those areas, dioxin leached into people's bodies, their food, and worst of all, the groundwater. In an underground aquifer, the toxin can remain stable for at least 100 years.
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As a result, even decades later, the dioxin continues to cause health problems and birth defects for Vietnamese people in the sprayed area. The Vietnamese government estimates that about 400,000 people have died from Agent Orange poisoning, and about half a million children have been born with birth defects. People who were exposed during the period of heaviest usage and their children may have elevated rates of various cancers, including soft tissue sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, and lymphocytic leukemia.

From the project "VIETNAM THANKS USA"
During the Vietnam War (November 1, 1955 - April 30, 1975) the United States military used chemical agents in its fight against Ho Chi Minh's Army of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The most important of those chemical weapons were the incendiary napalm and the defoliant Agent Orange, a liquid mixture containing the 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T herbicides. The compound is toxic for only about a week before it breaks down, but one of its daughter products is the persistent toxin dioxin. Dioxin lingers in soil, water, and human bodies.
.
The US sprayed Agent Orange on the jungles and fields of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The Americans sought to defoliate the trees and bushes, so that enemy soldiers would be exposed. They also wanted to kill off the agricultural crops that fed the Viet Cong (as well as local civilians).
They spread 43 million liters of Agent Orange, covering 24% of south Vietnam with the poison. Over 3,000 villages were in the spray zone. In those areas, dioxin leached into people's bodies, their food, and worst of all, the groundwater. In an underground aquifer, the toxin can remain stable for at least 100 years.
.
As a result, even decades later, the dioxin continues to cause health problems and birth defects for Vietnamese people in the sprayed area. The Vietnamese government estimates that about 400,000 people have died from Agent Orange poisoning, and about half a million children have been born with birth defects. People who were exposed during the period of heaviest usage and their children may have elevated rates of various cancers, including soft tissue sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease, and lymphocytic leukemia.